Maia prowled through the warehouse, heavy bass pounding around her, thumping in her ears as the floor vibrated beneath her feet. All around her she could see sweaty bodies pressing together, sliding and rocking against one another to the sound of the music.
She paused to allow her eyes to adjust to the flashing lights cutting through the darkness, feeling a hard body pressing against her back.
"Fancy seeing you here," a low voice rumbled in her ear, his hand wrapping around her throat.
He spun the Alpha around to wrap his arm around her waist, the visitor from nights past smiling down at her. Their bodies found the rhythm of the music together and he was entranced by her natural allure, almost overlooking the fierce expression on her face. Almost.
"Didn't I tell you to go back to the others," Maia asked, reaching up to grip his blonde hair in her hand. She pulled hard enough for him to feel pain, but instead of making him recoil, a shiver raced down his spine and he held her more tightly against him, "And didn't I tell you that I wasn't going anywhere without you?"
"Look, I don't have time to play games with you D-"
He spun her to face the far left wall, swaying in time with her body as he prodded Maia into looking through the crowd. "Like you said, you asked me for my help Maia. And there she is," the man whispered before disappearing into the crush of the crowd, leaving Maia to fend for herself. Taking a deep breath and plastering a fake smile onto her face, she started towards the DJ booth, the woman there looking up to meet an old, but familiar face.
"Holy hell, if it isn't Maia Hale," Kara said with a grin, moving to greet the taller woman.
"Nice show you threw together," Maia shouted over the bass of the music, seeing the human smile proudly. "You were, after all, the queen of parties back in school."
She looked around for a moment and furrowed her brow, taking one last look at Maia's hand before speaking to her again, "I take it you and 'tall, dark and handsome' are still together- where is Derek tonight?" Maia feigned sadness, trying to pry into Kara's involvement with the case surrounding the Kanima, shaking her head. "You know after Camden died and then Tucker, now Sean and Jessica- he's in a real bad place. But… hey, I remember you hanging around with them a lot-" Kara nodded and tucked her hair behind her ears, looking over Maia's shoulder at one of the partygoer's who had given her trouble earlier in the night, "Yeah, swim team and all…" A rumbling growl caught her attention and she turned unconsciously to the door of the warehouse, ignoring Kara as she continued to talk- she knew Derek's warning growl better than anything, especially when he was so fond of using it on her. When she heard the sound of gunfire and a yelp that could only be Boyd, the Alpha started running before being flung back into the crowd, a rough arm wrapping around her waist. She struggled for a second before realizing that it was her own pack mate, the taller male scanning the crowd for any sort of disturbance as Erica danced her way to them. "Let me go Isaac- Boyd is hurt," Maia said through her teeth, her claws lengthening as she prepared to rip at him and run. He only tightened his hold on her, shaking his head as he spoke lowly in her ear, "Tear at me all you want, but I won't let you go until I'm sure you're thinking straight. Maia, Derek is an Alpha and he was an Alpha before you came into the picture- he knows what he's doing; he was born to do it. And Boyd is hurt, yes, but he'll continue to fight and later he'll heal because he knows what he has to do. So stay focused and don't go fucking this up for us."
Maia took a deep breath before Isaac released her, his eyes looking past her at Jackson.
"Get Scott and meet me in the back," he said, Erica moving to block the teen as they closed in on him. Maia watched them dancing against Jackson, the boy seeming taken by both of them even as Isaac reached for the syringe. She could see the lights gleaming off of the steel as he tried to inject Jackson, venom-tipped claws lashing out at both Isaac and Erica. "Shit!" She moved through the crush of sweat covered bodies to intercept Jackson, climbing his body and wrapping herself around him. Isaac appeared from her left and plunged the needle into the human's neck, the ketamine taking almost immediate effect as Jackson slumped to the ground.
"Are you alright," she asked, taking Isaac's forearm into her hands and looking at the already healing scratches. He covered her hand with his free one and nodded, "I'm fine. Get Scott, alright?"
She nodded and started looking for him before catching the scent of the youngest Argent, baring her teeth- she was the last thing Maia had thought she would be dealing with tonight. The girl was standing in a darkened corner of the warehouse with a male standing in front of her, Maia hearing her quiet protests. "Matt, Matt, listen to me! No! I don't want to have anything to do with you-"
"Come on Allison, cut the crap! You let me take you out and pay for this stupid rave and I don't even get a little? I think that's hardly fair," he replied before kissing her, the girl shoving at his shoulders. She looked over his shoulder to see Maia, her eyes on fire as she snatched Matt up by the jacket and pulled him away from Allison. "I believe she said no Matt. Go," Maia said venomously, pushing him away. He started to protest before she snarled, smelling the alcohol on his breath- if he even remembered seeing her half-phased in the morning, he would chalk it up to the sauce. Matt scrambled away and Maia turned her attention back to Allison, the girl folding her arms over her chest, "I was fine to handle that myself…"
"What are you doing here Allison?"
The human looked up at her and narrowed her eyes, her voice strained. "Obviously since he's still running around, wreaking havoc on the populace, I knew that you and the pack couldn't handle Jackson on your own- I told my father and Gerard," Allison replied, the Alpha restraining herself from reaching out to snap her neck as she took a deep breath. "I hope you didn't tell Scott that- I can smell him on you."
"Of course I did; he left about twenty minutes ago."
"Damn," Maia cursed, moving to follow his path- he had indeed left the warehouse but he hadn't made it far, not with the barrier of Mountain Ash surrounding the building. Just to test it, she reached out to it and found herself unable to touch it before noticing two places where the line had been broken and realigned, skid marks showing where the vehicle had crossed the ash.
Reaching down to touch a spot of blood on the pavement, she brought it to her nose and sniffed, her eyes going wide.
"Scott."
Stiles left the party to find Erica and Isaac, staring at the growing list of text messages and missed calls from the both of them. Opening a back room, they both looked up at him hopefully before shaking their heads, Isaac punching at the wall. "What? What's wrong," Stiles asked over the roar of the music and Isaac's fury. Erica bit down on her bottom lip, looking at a seemingly unconscious Jackson, "Maia's gone and so is Scott. The ketamine is going to wear off eventually…"
"Let's see just how effective it still is," Isaac said, going at Jackson with claws extended.
However, like a puppet, Jackson's arm shot out to grab Isaac's hand and he twisted painfully, Erica moving forward to pull him away. Stiles glared at the impatient Beta, shrugging, "And the point of that was?" Isaac held his hand as the two broken fingers began to heal, baring his teeth at the human. "I don't see you coming up with anything better."
"There's no point," Jackson said, though his voice seemed off, as if there were two voices speaking. "No point."
"That's not Jackson's voice," Stiles whispered to Erica, the werewolf sighing- he was almost insufferable. She straightened up and looked at the still form of Jackson, swallowing before she spoke, "No point in what… master?"
He was silent for a moment before turning to look at her, his head cocked to the side. "In trying to save them. The murderers… who murdered me."
Maia was hit by a wave of lethargy as she moved around the back of the warehouse, wisps of smoke rising from underneath a garage door. She inhaled unwillingly and coughed, hearing a voice from inside as she pressed herself against the building. "You know Scott, I hate to kill you but I told you- my daughter will not be involved in this. I will do whatever I have to in order to protect Allison," a rather pleasant female voice said. Victoria Argent smiled as she put more wolfsbane into the cannabis vaporizer, looking down at the incapacitated wolf. "It'll look just like an accident, like you had an asthma attack and couldn't get to your inhaler in time."
The garage was ripped up and Maia appeared, her eyes burning crimson as she bared her teeth at Victoria Argent. "You bitch," she snarled, lunging at the human.
Elsewhere in the warehouse, Jackson began to transform, the three other teens watching him realizing that they were in great danger. Stiles and the others ran out, Isaac blocking the door with his body. "Take her and go-" There was a roar-like hiss and the Kanima broke through the corrugated steel wall, Stiles and Erica falling to the ground to avoid being attacked. They watched the creature disappear onto the dance floor, Isaac pulling both Stiles and Erica to their feet. "Derek."
Maia held her own for a good five minutes before the toxic wolfsbane fumes started to affect her, the older Argent gaining the upper hand quickly and putting her on her back. "Maia Hale, what a shame. You thought you could just come and here and resist the wolfsbane? Who the hell do you think you are, dog," Victoria asked, prodding her with the tip of her shoe. Her lungs burned and her entire body ached, but Maia refused to submit and succumb to the poison, refused to die at the hands of an Argent. She bared at the woman and she was curious to see that in the fading wolf's face were eyes a dimming shade of gray, "What are you?"
"Nothing you've ever seen before," Maia choked out before allowing her body to arch up with the last howl she was sure she would ever utter, placing the very last of her energy into it.
Derek stood outside of the warehouse as Stiles and his wolves emerged, unable to break the line of ash. As Maia's howl split the air, he felt his entire body go numb- he had never heard her sound like that. Another, weaker howl followed and he knew it was Scott's, seeing Erica and Isaac turning back towards the warehouse. "Stiles, break the line," Derek snarled, looking at the warehouse.
The human looked at him and saw the frantic look in the Alpha's eyes, unsure of what to do, "What?"
"They're dying," Derek roared as the sounds of screams reached his ears.
Hundreds of the party patrons were pouring out of the warehouse and he could smell blood upon some of them, but he didn't care, seeing one girl's shoe drag the Ash out of line enough for him to cross. He tossed Isaac and Erica into the mass exodus, doing his best to keep them from harm's way as he moved to find his mate and his pack brother.
The smell of wolfsbane was overpowering, Derek pausing for a moment before pushing through to kick open a door and bursting in. His vision instant blurred and he coughed before mustering up his resolve to try and find Maia.
There was a body lying atop a table and there was another on the floor, Derek moving closer to see who it was. There was a sharp pain in the back of his shoulder and he went down onto one knee, letting out an agonized roar. He could feel the searing sensation rushing through his veins, turning to see Victoria Argent with a knife in hand- the blade glimmered with a mix of his own blood and concentrated wolfsbane. Derek flung her across the room, his eyes sharpening as he was forced to half-phase, snarling at her, "I will kill you!" She scrambled up onto her knees and bent over Maia, preparing to plunge the poisoned knife into her heart.
"Not before I kill her-"
Like a rabid animal, Maia lunged up and attacked the woman, receiving a vicious stab to her chest, slumping back to the ground. Victoria escaped, Derek pulling himself across the ground to his wife. She was breathing laboredly, turning to face him, "Scott… get… Scott out."
She was unconscious by the time Derek emerged from the warehouse, hearing the sound of police sirens in the distance closing in fast. Maia was in his arms, Scott being dragged along by his jacket, the Alpha exhausted and on the verge of collapse himself.
Derek managed one more step before passing out upon the ground, a dark figure moving from the shadows into the light and sighing.
"Some people are just inhumane…"
"Why isn't she waking up?"
Derek stood over Maia's still form protectively as she laid on one of the table in Dr. Deaton's office, the vet attempting to tend to her wound with some difficulty- the Alpha male made it difficult for him to work with his overall intense nature and his knack of getting in the way. "Derek! Either back up and let me do my job, or do it for me," Deaton snapped, frustrated. Derek however took it as a challenge and pressed his hand to Maia's wound, looking down at his unconscious wife, "I will." He gritted his teeth and as Deaton watched, allowing the transference of the poison pumping through her veins to take place in his. The werewolf gasped, feeling and seeing the viscous black traveling up his arm as his own venomous blood diluted and dissipated the poison throughout his body. The doctor moved forward to support him as he stumbled but Derek shook his head before standing and starting towards the back door. "Take care of her," Derek said, taking one last look at his wife before walking out and slamming the door behind him in a way that made sure it splinter. The doctor's acute hearing picked up on the sound of shredding clothes and a loud, demanding bark as Derek called to his pack, heavy footfalls growing increasingly faint.
Once he was sure Derek had gone, he picked up his phone and sent out a brief message, "She's here."
Maia was just rousing when a tall woman who favored Deaton walked in, wanting to sit up but knowing that she didn't have the energy to do so. "Alan, how can you even entertain the idea of letting a pack as weak and young as Derek's handle-" He shook his head and cut the suture thread on Maia's chest wound, "I believe that they are more capable than you think."
"Even against what's coming," the woman asked, folding her arms over her chest.
The Alpha was instantly suspicious, but the vet moved to raise Maia's arm, showing off the small tattoo there. She growled then and pulled her hand away, Deaton nodding to both of the women. "They're coming for her; she can either start the war or end it. Its out of our hands," he said, Maia finally pulling herself into a sitting position.
"How long does Derek have… before?"
"Tomorrow's the full moon and considering that one of them is already here, I would say not long. Move fast or Derek- and your pack- are all dead."